Armored Core Pt1: The Academy
by Dark Raven008912
Summary: The Ark is getting overpopulated, so thety decide to build another corperation. In doing so they create an Academy, now teens from all over the Earth, and Mars, are coming to this Academy, hoping that they will someday become ravens themselves...Disconti
1. Data Log 1

Kenzi stepped through the doors of the famous Raven Academy. He felt both excited and nervous, he had never been to an academy before and didn't really know how to act. He decided that first he would take off his jacket. He hadn't realized that it was so hot in in the  
Academy. He watched as the rest of the new recruits stepped through the doors, looking around in awe at the complexity of their new training school, and temporary home.

Kenzi sighed and took out his PDA from his pocket. He checked for any messages, but he found none. He felt a tap on his back and jumped, then turned around to see a smiling face at him.

"Neil!" He said rather surprised, "H-how did you make it into the academy…"

Neil just smiled, "That's my secret…" Kenzi groaned disappointedly.

"So what do you think of our new recruits?" A man said

"Hmm… zoom in on that one…" Said a woman in her mid-twenties.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure about it, don't make me say it again." She commanded.

"Um… yes ma'am. Sorry ma'am" The man zoomed the camera in on Kenzi.

"Hmm… what's his name?"

"Kenzi Kusanagi ma'am." The man handed her some papers, she took and read them. Her eyes scanned the information on the paper with interest in her eyes. Then, with a gasp, her eyes widened with shock and surprise when she read a current section of the paper.

"These are his scores. Why, these are far better that any of the scores in the academy." She said in shock. The man was speechless and dumbfounded. "Why did you not tell me earlier!" She demanded sternly.

He said nothing… (A/N: Kinda sounded dumb but i didn't know what to write so...)

"Welcome, new recruits, to the Raven Moon Academy." A woman said on a stand. Kenzi was already starting to fall asleep from extreme boredom. Neil, on the other hand, was listening intently. "I am Ms. Hakura. I will be in charge of this academy. You will follow all of your instructors if you want to become a raven in the "Arena". I have a good feeling that all of you pass." Neil elbowed Kenzi's arm to wake him up. "Your class phases will begin in twenty four hours. In that time you will get to choose your rooms and know your squad mates. That is all, dismissed!" And with that the recruits began talking amongst each other, some were pairing up with other people that they wanted as their squad mates.

In that time, Neil had moved up next to him with another one of her squad mates. "Lemme guess… we're squad mates now, right?"

"Yep, guess so Kenzi!" She smiled.

"You're too overconfident, ya know that right." Kenzi grumbled uncomfortably.

"And you're too stubborn… Asuka…" Teased Neil, Kenzi stuttered. Neil's roommate giggled.

"I don't get it!" A girl shouted in frustration. "No one should get scores this high!"

"Now now… Miss Allester I'm sure it was just a glitch, we'll do another-"

"I don't WANT ANOTHER RECORD CHECK!" She snapped back at her caretaker. "I want you to find him for me! I 'm gonna fight him in tomorrow's matches and prove to everyone that I am the best one in this academy!" Allester almost sounded insane.

"I don't think I can do that ma'am." The butler said inferiorly.

"Why must I have to do everything myself." She said calmly.

Kenzi had to sleep on the top bunk, he hated the top bunk. But it was either that or get a different room.

"I hate the top bunk!" Kenzi complained for the millionth time as he threw his stuff up to the top bunk. Just then Katrina came through the door with Neil.

Neil was one of his squad mates. She had blond hair blue eyes and almost always wore her ex-boyfriends air force jacket. He never did know why she liked it so much. He asked her one time and she said that she liked the smell, another time she said that it just looked cool on her. When he asked her a third time she just said that it reminded her of her boyfriend. Kenzi never did understand Neil, her character was hard to read, even when she was doing the most basic and common of activities.

Katrina was his other squad mate, she was about fourteen. Kinda cute, and was mostly quiet. Katrina had a nice personality, and was very likeable, but she never smiled a lot, and her eyes were always showing a sad quality in them, even when she smiled. To him she looked like a lost, mistreated puppy lost in the rain. If anyone could picture it. She had grayish green eyes and silver hair with brown bangs. Kenzi figured that she probably dyed it for some reason.

Sometimes Kenzi didn't believe himself. That he could tell who someone was in just a matter of hours. He sometimes even surprised himself.

"Hey!" Neil shouted in his face, knocking him back.

"Uugh… Whacha want now…" Kenzi groaned as he got back up.

"Katrina wants to talk to you." She said sheepishly. "It might have something to do with the Karasawa Rifle."

"Oh, well what about the Karasawa?" Kenzi asked with puzzlement in his voice.

"Don't know." Neil said immaturely as she disappeared into the bathroom. Kenzi laid back on his bed, a couple seconds later he heard the shower running. He smirked to himself and climbed down the cold, steel bunk ladder. _Wonder why they don't use wood anymore_, Kenzi thought as he walked out the into the hall. Wood was warmer that steel, Kenzi already knew because he had once slept in one. But he quickly remembered that wood was now in short supply due to the intense combat that both Earth, and the terraformed Mars.

Kenzi sighed sadly, he missed the old days…

Katrina looked at the bluish moon as it continuously hid and appeared from behind the haze-like clouds. She took out the card certificate from her trouser pocket and stared at it for a while.

"Should I give this to him?" She asked herself as she leaned on the railing. Katrina was still uncertain if she should give him the card that her father had entrusted it to her.

_ "Here Katrina take this certificate card. It will help you in the academy"_

_ "But father, this is your latest design. I can't take it."_

_ "Sure you can." Her father said smugly. "See you in ten months!"_

At that time Kenzi had came through the balcony doors. He waved at her and walked up to join her on the railing.

"So what you want with me?" Kenzi asked.

"I wanted to give you this…" Katrina answered quietly as she gave him the certificate card. Kenzi's eyes brightened when he took a look at the card.

"No way!" He shouted surprisingly. "This is the Karasawa Mark Seven ("Karasawa MK. 7")!" It was the newest model in the Karasawa series.

Katrina nodded. "It is, and its yours."

"But why would you give it to me…" Kenzi asked with puzzlement.

"Because I saw your performance scores…" She said with more sadness in her eyes and voice. "You'd need it more than me…"

Kenzi looked at it for a while. It shimmered in his hands in the moonlight, as if it belonged to him. He stared at it, then looked at Katrina. She had a sorrowful expression on her face.

"You take it." Kenzi said after a while.

"Wha-why Kenzi?" She blurted out uncontrollably.

"Because," He said confidently, "I'm already among the best in the academy. I won't need it, sure it's a great weapon and all, probably the greatest one. But I'm sure I won't need it."

"Are you sure Kenzi?" She asked demandingly. Kenzi nodded, then walked towards the door. Katrina hesitated for a moment then walked up to him.

"Thank you." Katrina smiled. Kenzi continued towalk through the doors.

"You're welcome." He whispered so that only he could hear.

Katrina stood there watching the door. She looked at the card and thought of that boy.

_So there are others that care…_

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A/N:That's chapter one,I hope you all liked it. I have five chapters typed already so...

(Need reviews to upload next chapter)


	2. Data Log 2

Data Log 2:

New Days and Strange New Friends

Kenzi woke up slowly to see the sun shining through the windows. He groaned and pulled the covers over his head. He did not want to wake up today.

"Kenzi wake up we're gonna be late for our first class!" Neil yelled. Kenzi groaned again. Katrina came out of the shower room and got into a dressing room by the bunk. Kenzi groaned, Neil frowned impatiently. Pretty soon she was getting pissed off, Neil took a deep breath. "KENZI! GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED!" Kenzi jumped up and knocked Neil off the ladder and flat on her back. Now it was Neil who was groaning, she had the breath knocked out of her.

"Uh… sorry." He half hollered. Neil had a painful face on her. Katrina just laughed and walked out the doors in a old fashioned jean jacket and pants with a light blue shirt that had the picture of a plush-like rabbit.

Kenzi jumped down and walked groggily into the shower. Neil slowly got up and, straightened her jacket and walked out into the hallway.

"Okay class now who will explain to us the main types of leg components that are available to an AC" Kenzi was beginning to doze off if Katrina hadn't elbowed him. A student raised his hand as their instructor waited intently. Kenzi could see that it was a girl who raised his hand. What also caught his attention was that that girl had a light green-blue tint in her silver hair, and it looked natural. Her right arm was also made up of cybernetic parts. They parts were light gray, metallic, and seemed very flexible. The girl wore a hair ribbon on the back of her head and had scarlet eyes.

"Yes Kasumi." The instructor simply said.

"The leg components that are available to an AC are humanoid legs, reverse-joint legs, quadruped legs, tank bases, and hovering leg platforms."

"Very good!" The instructor chimed. "Very good indeed! Now, moving on." Kenzi began to wonder about that girl, he wondered why she had cybernetic parts.

_Was she involved in an accident or something_, Kenzi thought to himself as he wrote down notes in his PDA. Katrina yawned, which was unusual for her since she was usually polite and quite most of the time. But he was tired as well and it became hard for him to pay attention. He yawned again and slumped down, he was tired. And he couldn't wait for the sparring matches to begin.

_Later that day…_

"I can't believe that Component Class was so long!" Kenzi complained.

"It wasn't all bad Kenzi." Neil said simply.

"At least you learned something, right?" Katrina asked.

"I already studied for that last night." Kenzi replied.

"So Asuka _does _study for his classes." Neil teased.

"Neil, don't tease Kenzi like that." Katrina said as Kenzi turned slightly pink. Neil giggle and ruffled Kenzi's hair.

"Okay." Neil just said simply.

Kenzi sped up his pace as he returned to his regular color. Neil shrugged and also sped up to catch him. Katrina just shook her head and hurried up to catch them.

Kenzi, Neil, and Katrina were the first ones to arrive at the garage where they got to witness the Academy ACs being shipped in by giant freight loaders.

"Wow!" Kenzi exclaimed. "That's so cool!" Katrina also looked on in awe at the massive size of the ACs. Neil walked over to the instructor and was asking him when the class would start.

"Wonder when we get to start?" Kenzi asked.

"I guess we'll find out when everyone gets here." Replied Katrina. Kenzi said nothing and walked over to join the small crowd of people that were starting to form around the instructor.

"Well then! I guess we should start now." The instructor chimed.

It took about ten minutes for the instructor to finish the directions and safety regulations. Then he called out the students by alphabetical order to choose their ACs and get their ignition keys. It took a little while before Kenzi was called to choose his AC.

_Hmm… I should probably choose an AC with both a good defense and offense_, Kenzi thought as he walked over to a red one. After the last student was called, the instructor signaled the students to get into the cockpit. Of course, he didn't need to explain the cockpit layouts and control panels because mostly all of the students already knew how to operate an AC.

As Kenzi opened up his hatch, he looked over to his right to see a girl, just about his age, walk up to him. He could tell she wasn't in a good mood, she had a slight scowl that made in uncomfortable. And his consciousness was telling that it was going to be a bad thing.

"Hey!" She half hollered. "Your name wouldn't be Kenzi would it?"

"Yeah-yeah it is." Kenzi answered nervously. "What do you want with me." He soon got his answer when she grabbed him by his collar and brought his face so close to hers he could practically see the cold fire of hate in her eyes.

"Don't get too confident just because you got high evaluation scores." She said bitterly. "No one is better that me!" And with that she threw him against the hatch of the now closed cockpit of the AC. Knocking the wind out of him.

"You shouldn't mess with Kazami Allester." A student said. "Or you'll end up in big trouble."

"I'll think of that when it happens." Muttered Kenzi.

"By the way," He said, "my name is Kou."

"My name's Kenzi nice to meet ya." Kenzi said. Kou smiled and disappeared into his cockpit.

Kenzi did the same and typed in the ignition key. He heard a humming sound indicating that the generator and radiator was online and functional.

He sighed. _Here goes nothing…_

"Ma'am!" The man said quickly.

"What is it Conner." She replied coldly and sternly.

The man, now known as Conner, flattened his suit (business suit) before telling her.

"There is a student known as Kazami Allester, she is one of our top students."

"And…?" The woman asked with sudden interest in her voice.

"She has changed the combat files ma'am." The man said fearfully. "Kazami has changed her opponent to student 807-M92."

"That Kenzi boy?"

"Yes Ms. Helena." He said. Helena didn't say a word. She looked at Conner.

"You are dismissed until further notice." She said sternly as the man left the room.

_So… Kenzi versus Miss Allester_, she thought as she walked over to the training dome, _this is should be worthwhile…_

Kenzi waited impatiently in his cockpit, he was watching the battles that were going on in the dome through a window that seemed to take up the entire front panel of his screen. But he wasn't watching attentively, he was too anxious to pay that much attention. In his head he was thinking up strategies against his opponent. He could hear the radio transmissions from the other students on his radio. He'd liked to listen to conversations from his childhood. So it wasn't a surprise when Neil appeared on his screen to ask him why his radio was always on.

"Cause it helps pass the time." Kenzi replied in the same smug tone that Neil used when answering his questions. Neil just looked and him awkwardly and cut the link. Kenzi relaxed and took out a manual from a pocket under the pilot seat. He turned through the pages quickly without reading all of the words.

After that he began to think about his strategy that he would be using against Kazami. _Now should I use a defensive tactic, or an offensive one…_

Kenzi was taking his time, as it would be a while before his battle. Kenzi was having a hard time thinking of a strategy so he decided he would ask some of the students that were also waiting for their matches to be announced.

"It's kinda hard to tell." One of them said.

"Her strategies really depend of the type of opponents." Another one said.

"I don't know, I've never fought her." Said another.

"Sorry Kenzi, don't have a clue." Kou said.

"Why are you asking me. Besides, you wouldn't stand a chance against her."

It was decided, Kenzi just made up his mind that he would vary the strategy to counter any one that Kazami would use against him.

"Next up is Kenzi Kakashi and… Kazami… Allester?" The instructor suddenly looked at the combat schedules in puzzlement. Kenzi also heard lots of talking among the students. It was true, Kenzi was the lowest class student so far. But he did have excellent test scores that rivaled the best students.

Either way he would have to fight her sooner or later. Kenzi waited for Kazami to walk up to the loading dock first before he followed suit. He slowly moved the leg pedals, and felt the rising and lowering of the cockpit as the AC walked slowly towards the loading bay. He felt very nervous but tried to push it away, as it would get in the way of his piloting ability.

Kenzi moved his AC from the garage area to the loading elevator. The feet clamps attached to his AC and slowly it was moved up to the arena. Kenzi flexed his muscles in his hands to get ready for it.

The Elevator slowly moved to the top. And in no time, Kenzi's AC had moved up to the top.

Kenzi looked at the arena around him, it was entirely made up of metal. It had a huge metal wall all around the arena, the walls were silverish gray like the rest of the arena and were over three thousand feet high. Kenzi could only see the sky from above. It was light blue with some swirly, milky white clouds.

"Begin!" The instructors words cut through his daze as quickly as a knife through hot butter.

Kazami started off by firing machinegun rounds at Kenzi. Kenzi activated his boosters and dashed around the arena trying to find cover, but was hit by a barrage of machinegun rounds as Kazami fired at him with another machinegun.

"Argh!" Kenji yelped as he was thrown forward and back in his seat, restrained by the seat straps. He steadied his concentration and flew foreword dodging most of the machine gun rounds.

"You're not going to defeat me!" Kazumi shouted as she activated her OB system and smashed Kenzi's AC. She then flew around behind him and blasted his AC in the back with rockets. Kenzi felt blood swelling up in his throat as he felt his one of his ribs puncture his right lung. He coughed it up and tried to steady his concentration, which was getting harder since he could barely breath and it hurt when he did.

"Damn…" He muttered.

"What's wrong…" Kazami said cockily and coolly. "I am I too hard for you."

Kenzi tried to laugh considering the pain. "You've seen nothing yet!"

"What are you laughing about?" Kazami snapped.

"Laughing keeps the pain away…"

"What does that-" Kazami was cut off as Kenzi's AC dashed forward and tackled her AC. Then he flew backwards and fire five rounds out of his rifle. Kenzi was amazed by the power of the rifle, as it smashed Kazami's AC in the chest, knocking it back with tremendous force.

"Augh!" She screamed as her AC hit a wall that was just put up for blockage.

"Who's stronger no-" Kenzi was cut off as he coughed up more blood. Then his instructor beamed up on his display as he was hit by another rocket.

"Kenzi are you okay?" His instructor asked.

"Yeah… I'll be okay…" He said weakly after he recovered from the second blow. He dashed forward as Kazami began recovering from the extreme blow dealt to her. He activated his blade and sliced her AC's left arm clean off. Then he punched her AC, knocking it off to the side about seven hundred meters.

"Pretty good…" Kazami said bitterly. "You're the first on to pull off the "Slash and Smash" at your level." Kazami then performed the same move on Kenzi, but she used her machinegun instead, and destroyed his AC's head.

"Dammit!" Kenzi yelled as he lost his radar and all the scanning functions.

"Kenzi's at a big disadvantage now." Katrina said to no one in particular as Kenzi was hit with another barrage of machinegun rounds.

Kazami was taken by surprise as Kenzi performed an amateur feat. He activated his OB system and boosted forward towards her AC. He surprised everyone in the garage by actually grabbing Kazami's machinegun. The rounds shredded up Kenzi's left arm as he bent the front part of the weapon, jamming the weapon.

Kazami felt a kick in her right joystick and felt it thrust back as her machinegun exploded, leaving a destroyed burning piece of scrap in her AC's hand.

"How dare you-" Kazami screamed in rage as she was pushed back against the wall, smashing all of her AC's support equipment.

"It's game…" Kenzi said coldly as he finished her off with his rifle. "I win!"

Inside of Kazami's cockpit, the girl was registering the event that just happened.

"That's impossible…" She said in a breaking voice. "I can't lose, I just can't. it's impossible…"

_Wow, I actually won,_ Kenzi thought as he released his grip on the controls. His hands were all cold and sweaty. "I actually won I actually…" He couldn't finish his sentence because he had passed out from blood loss. The last thing he heard was his instructor trying to contact him. Then everything went black…

_Amazing_, Helena thought as she walked to her office from the battle that she just witnessed. Conner then walked in the room, he seemed in a rush and was anxious to tell her something.

"That Kenzi kid." Conner said.

"Yes?" She asked, her wasn't full of interest as it usually was.

"He's in the infirmary. He has extreme blood loss and a punctured lung."

Helena's eyes widened as he finished. "Give him level four medical care. Make sure he doesn't die."

"Yes ma'am." Conner said and disappeared out the door.


	3. Data Log 3

"Do you think that Kenzi will be okay?" Katrina asked as she and Neil were lounging around in their rooms.

"He'll be okay." Neil said rather calmly, "Kenzi's a tough kid…"

"How is that?" Katrina asked as she turned on her labtop.

"I once saw him take a hit to the head with a baseball bat during a fight." Neil said, "Gave him a bloody head, but he literally kicked the crap outta that guy…"

Katrina laughed gently, earning a smile from Neil. Katrina turned back to the computer, that was now connected to the internet, and began surfing the web for music songs. Neil, who didn't have much of an interest in what the other teen was doing, silently read her book.

The room had grown silent for fifteen minutes since they had stopped talking about Kenzi. Katrina was half asleep on the computer, her elbows resting on the keyboard table, after a while she let out a frustrating groan, and switched the computer off. Neil was in the kitchen, cooking some eggs. Katrina walked into the kitchen and sat down in a chair, Neil gave a quick glance at her before turning back to her cooking.

"So when did it happen?" Katrina asked sleepily and softly at the same time.

"When did what happen?" Neil replied as she placed her eggs into the fridge.

"That fight you told me about earlier…"

"Oh that…" Neil mumbled quietly, "That happened when he was eight…"

* * *

That smell…

That hospital-like smell…

He hated it…

Kenzi woke up in a hospital bed, it looked as if a paint bomb exploded and covered everything in white. He had some tubes inserted into his arms and legs, he was wearing a hospital gown. There was also a beeping sound coming from a machine that he supposed was monitoring his heartbeat.

"How is our patient doing?" A nurse asked sweetly as she walked in the room.

"Great…" Kenzi moaned, even though he actually felt no pain at all in his body.

"That's very good." The nurse chirped almost surprisingly. "You recovered faster than the medical staff predicted."

Kenzi ignored the nurse and sat up, he noticed his mouth was dry. He swallowed a couple times, restoring some of the moisture. The nurse gave him a bottle of water and left the room. Kenzi took it and drank about half of it. Then he pulled the tubes out of his arms and legs, wincing in pain each time he pulled one out.

"Where the hell are my clothes…" Kenzi muttered to himself. He then began walking around the room looking for his clothing. What he found was a mechanic jumpsuit, a pair of his boxers that he found in a suitcase, and a grey muscle shirt. He quickly put them on and walked outside.

The hallways seemed pretty empty except for some of the maintenance staff workers walking around.

_I should probably take the day off_, Kenzi thought to himself restlessly as he explored the halls. He was trying to find the pilot quarters, unfortunately he wasn't having much luck though. Then he finally gave up after a while and went to an information computer to search for the student quarters. The computer had a fairly good sized screen. Possibly a touch screen, Kenzi probably figured. He pressed a green button, activating the machine.

"Hmm… I guess I could go to the garages for a while…" Kenzi said quietly to himself. He quickly searched the data banks until he found the garages. Then pressed a button that appeared on the screen. Then a paper slid out of the machine indicating directions. Kenzi grabbed it and walked down the hall, looking at the paper from time to time, also hoping that he wouldn't get into too much trouble…

* * *

"I can **believe **this!" Neil yelled in fury while Katrina tried to calm her down, "Why the hell would Kenzi go wander around in the academy for!"

"Well…" Katrina said softly, "He could've gotten bored and-"

"Well." Neil said angrily, "He could've at least left a note or something…" Then she ran out the door.

"I guess…" Katrina complied quietly and ran after Neil…

Kenzi yawned as he walked along the garage. Earning a few puzzled glances from the maintenance crew. He continued to walk until he reached his AC. The AC that he had used piloted to win his first evaluation. He yawned again, he was more exhausted than he had expected.

"Hey kid!" A man yelled, making him turn his head in that direction. "What are you doing by this AC. It's really unstable.

"How so?" Kenzi asked intently.

"It seems a few of the MG rounds from the evaluation tests a couple of days ago hit the generator matrix system."

"Great…" Kenzi said simply.

"Yeah…" The engineer said sadly, "It's really a shame, we'll have to scrap it…"

"So?"

"So what?" The engineer asked in a puzzled voice.

"When can I start?" Kenzi asked confidently, knowing that the engineer knew what he was talking about…

"That Kenzi is gonna need **another **surgery when I'm through with him!" Neil said angrily as they walked through the garage doors that were closest to Kenzi's AC. She grabbed the nearest person to her right, a maintenance crew member. Which was the man that Kenzi had been talking to before. "All right! Spill it! Where is he! Where is Kenzi!"

"You mean that kid's a friend of yours…"

"Umm… yes…" Katrina answered for her friend…

"Well you've got one hell of a mechanic for a friend!" The man said cheerily.

_I hope so,_Neil thought worrily...

* * *

End of Chapter 3

Cliffhanger chapter...

And sorry this chapter is so short, I haven't had alot of time to type this story. I'll try to make the next one longer.


	4. Author's Note

Sorry about the lack of update. I'm running out of ideas to continue this story, if you guys can give me some I'd really like it.

Need help!


End file.
